In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

echarger. "Hey, ever the hear this one? Uh, okay you may not get this.
'Guys have Palms, what do girls have?'"
"Boccaccia! Yes, Ula had one of those before she — it broke.
Clié, and the Greek anatomy. Not so funny. You have filthy mind for
such little girl," he snapped flipping out a Platinum card from his paper
thin wallet. He slid back into her chair, logged on to the Air France site,
hit the little French flag and typed some numbers and a password.
She'd never seen anybody drop one grand, or whatever two Air
France fares were these days, like it was two quarters in a parking
meter.
"Voila. eight o'clock," he said, sliding the card back in his wallet
and swiveling around.
He walked over back down the futon, poking the wallet deep in
the back pocket of his narrow slacks, and sank into the green canvas.
Resting his head against the rumpled back of the mattress, he shut his
eyes, then opened them and blinked at the sprinklers jutting from the
ceiling. With a sudden jerky movement, he leaned over and poured
himself a second, or maybe it was a third, demitasse of coffee.
Over by the machines, Penny pulled out the pack of minidiscs
she had just bought, some empty CD's for copies and for her MP3 CD
player. And there was the minidisc unit itself, good for recording
anything, anywhere - tiny, indestructible, and with those new "extra
noise canceling mega-bass" earphones that screwed into her ear, she
was ready for anything. Her standard noise canceling, E.L.F. phones
were too big and would go with the clothes in the knapsack. Ula had
taken her cozy eye shade, but they usually had those in the
complimentary airplane handout.
The computers went through their shutdown procedures. She
packed her laptop and peripherals, and mini tech into the carry-on's
padded pocket. Indian summer might linger here, but she had a feeling
Paris would be more inhospitable, weather wise. From the metal locker,
she brought out her Timber Camo Goretex and shook out the stray
pine needles and a few pebbles bounced out and scattered on the
concrete. Penny scooped up the pebbles lest she later slip on them and
tossed them into the locker. Alessandro followed her every move from
his futon throne.
"You are so graceful, tell me, have you ever taken the dance?"
"Graceful? You're kidding, right? I did gymnastics, long time
ago, cuz I'm small, have quick reflexes, but contact sports aren't my
thing. Like the dance. Okey-doke, I'm ready. Lemme stick a note on
24